I have found several postings from victims here in the community and I have also been scammed. I would therefore like to warn others. Apparently, people have been using the same e-mail address "...consultant.com" to commit fraud for years. In my case, the attempted fraud took place as follows: ebay confirmed the sale to me. I received a message from the buyer via ebay that I should give him my IBAN, name and email address so that he could transfer the money. As this was my first time selling on ebay, I was fooled at first and gave him my email to pay via Paypal. Then I was bombarded with about 15 emails from Paypal and ebay - deceptively genuine, with perfect logos and extremely professional content. The fake Paypal emails said: "You've got new funds! This email confirms that xy sent you xy Euros for an eBay item with Paypal. The buyer has required this item to be shipped to the below address". You should send the goods to an address in Italy. When you click on the sender of the e-mail, you only see at second glance that it is not ebay or Paypal, but ".... consultant.com" was behind it. My recommendation: Please do everything you can to ensure that the fraud can be prosecuted - file a criminal complaint with the police in your country as well as in the country with the shipping address and also inform the consumer advice centres! Always check your Paypal account to see whether payment has really been received. Always click on sender to see the actual real sender email behind the fake Alias sender. I find it unbelievable that the scammers have continued unchallenged for years. I really hope that paypal, ebay, consumer protection agencies and the police will provide much more information about cybercrime and set warnings in the future, and that they will provide much more centralised information on how consumers can take action against this, and that there will be cross-border cooperation between the authorities to put a stop to such perpetrators!!!! Obviously, quite a few people fall for the scam and send in the articles. On top of that, some sellers transfer alleged customs duties when sending goods without ever receiving any sales money.
